Where are you

Hugs to you both. Hope everything comes out good!

 

From my last post place near SDV, I finally got a load dispatched. Initially told it was 5807#, then told 807#. Real total when I FINALLY got the stuff at 18:10 was 945#

That made 3 when a typical Friday might have 12 or more. Helps that one was weight and some distance.

Rolled in home 20:21

 

Rest area at the weigh station south of DC... heading for Florence KY in the AM, and Turkey Day in Denver.

 

Back home for the weekend, after being gone all week. Yep I know common for the majority, but not that common for me.

Monday hauled kiln dust to Amarillo, Tx, spent the night parked on the street at Street Toyota.
Tuesday I went to Turpin, OK loaded rock and delivered it to Great Bend, KS. From there I was sent to Marquette, KS to load for Steele City, NE. I spent the night in the trees at the Buildex plant, located NE of Marquette, KS. When I arrived there around 5pm, there were 2 other drivers waiting. They had been there since 3pm, the place refused to load them because... they were scheduled to be loaded the next morning. Now this is not a place that constantly has lines of trucks waiting to be loaded, there is no such thing as appointments. There were no other trucks being loaded. The plant runs 24 hrs a day.

So we finally got loaded at 7am Wednesday, I went to Steele City, NE and then was sent to Jeffrey Energy Center, which is North of St. Marys, KS, to load fly-ash, dump/delivery time 7:30am Thursday, at a construction site in Overland Park, KS. Well I camped out at the Lawrence service area on the Kansas Turnpike. Had plenty of hours left, arriving around 4:30 pm, but nowhere to park at the construction site. This run I was to "turn it", ie; go get a second load. So Thursday went back to St. Marys, loaded and delivered back to Overland Park. Then I was sent back again to load for another construction site located in Shaw, KS. Try finding that on a map or your GPS. Luckily our dispatcher provided good instructions (rare). It does exist see attached screenshot. This load was to be delivered 7am Friday. Well I managed to make it to Yates Center, KS, with 30mins left of my 14. You might think how could I run out? Well, Jeffrey Energy Center's loading points are self-serve. You have to line up under the cone shaped spout, so it comes down into the "can" on the trailer. I'm getting better now since I've been there about 5 times now. You don't know how much is going into the truck, so you guess by your gauges on your truck. Then it's about a mile from the loading points to the scale house, where you learn if you have enough, not enough or too much. If you overload, then you drive about 2 miles to the dumping point. This is known as going fishing, because it's at the bottom of a hill by a big ol' pond. The speed limit is 10 mph, and you don't want to get caught exceeding that. They will chase you down in a golf-cart, warn you the first time, then ban you. They also have a rule that no trucks are allowed in or OUT between 3:15 to 3:45 pm. So you wait, which I've had to do. Really stupid rule, as they change shifts before that time period. So I spent the night at the little convenient store/TS on the north side of town.

Friday delivered the load to Shaw, then to Fredonia, KS, loaded beans for Bunge (Emporia, KS). It took 2.5 hrs to get unloaded, lot of beans moving right now. From there I was sent back to St. Marys to load again for Shaw, however does not deliver until Monday morning.

Now on the 2 above construction site hauls, it was not just me, one little ol' truck delivering the dust. There were 5 of our company's trucks plus 2 from some other company delivering to the Overland Park job, then 7 of our trucks to the Shaw job. They're road/street projects, and we all need to be there at the scheduled times. These places are tight getting into, turned around, dumped, and out of. Not much level about them, in fact the Overland Park job, we had to have them cut a level area for our tires to set on. The Shaw project, the ground which was clay, and sloped up, was slick enough, when my bed reached the 3rd stage the tires started sliding. Trailer brakes were set and holding, but the trailer slid, so I had to release them, and hold the foot brake and let the trailer walk forward. This is something that really shouldn't be done on such ground, as the trailer can easily lay down. Managed to do it though. Oh not all the other trucks had this problem. The area where they dumped did not have an incline, I just got lucky on being told where to dump.

 

Florence, SC....trying to pick up a load of paper at RockTenn. I was here last night....somewhere about the 22nd truck in line (no joke), with about 3 hrs on my 14. Nope, says I....hooked a U and left. Got here about an hour ago, and I was fourth in line. Still got one ahead of me. Eventually, I'll head towards Michigan.

 

Typical rocktenn

 

Eaton, you wear me out with those stories!

 

'olhand, my best wishes go out to you and your wife. I pray she gets out soon and goes home feeling much better. This time last year I was spending all my time at the hospital with my loved one. We spent Thanksgiving at the VA hospital with nothing decent to eat and not a darned thing open to get something. Keep thinking positive and be strong. ~Hugs to you both~

Hubby and I are going on a date tonight to watch the Christmas lighting at the outdoor mall (the Legends) near the Speedway in KCKS. We were looking so forward to it last year, but he had his heart attack the Tuesday before, so this year it has a special attraction for us both.

 

Yessir....unfortunately, we didn't have any empties or it would have been preloaded as it usually is. I've think I've only live loaded out of here twice in all the times I've been here....

 

Chambersburg, PA having lunch...on my way to Florida as usual..